Unionized Hospitals Must Tread Carefully Before Implementing Communicable Disease Policies
Recently, in Virginia Mason Hospital, 357 NLRB No. 53, the National Labor Relations Board considered whether a Seattle hospital violated its duty to bargain under the National Labor Relations Act when it implemented a flu-prevention policy that required nurses to wear a mask if they refused to be immunized against influenza. In doing so, the Board reversed the administrative law judge’s (ALJ) holding that the hospital’s decision to implement the policy was permissible because it went to the hospital’s “core purpose” of protecting its patients’ health and was narrowly tailored to achieve its purpose. Continue reading this entry at Littler's Healthcare Employment Counsel.
Marking the end of Chairman Wilma Liebman's term, the National Labor Relations Board issued three significant decisions at the end of August that overturn long-standing Board precedent. In what may be the most significant of the three, a decision involving the healthcare industry, the Board paved the way for the proliferation of bargaining units by overruling its 1991 decision in Park Manor Care Center, 305 NLRB 872 (1991), and determining that certified nursing assistants ("CNAs") comprise an appropriate stand-alone bargaining unit. Although it involved a nursing home, the Board's decision is not limited to the healthcare industry and fundamentally changes the standard for determining appropriate bargaining units applicable to all employers. Continue reading this article 
The National Labor Relations Board's recent expansive view of employee rights is not news. What is news is the current Board majority's willingness to hold employers liable for conduct that, on its face, does not infringe any rights protected by federal labor law. Some recent cases have raised the question whether an employer's lawful conduct can nevertheless establish that an unfair labor practice has occurred.
Employers who provide employee health insurance containing prescription drug benefits are paying closer attention to the costs associated with these benefits. In particular, employers are exploring ways to control costs by altering the plan’s drug formulary, the part of the plan that establishes what drugs are covered and sets different cost “tiers” for various brand-name drugs and their generic equivalents. Employers faced with increasing prescription drug costs often ask insurers for less costly alternatives. When the insurance plan applies to a union-represented workforce and is incorporated into a collective bargaining agreement, this can spell trouble.
As a result of the NLRB’s June 3, 2010 